bio-EECS

A research team from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology including Jongyoon Han, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, has developed a new way to diagnose malaria using magnetic resonance relaxometry (MRR) — a technology that the group is adapting for inexpensive field deployable usage. Read more.

Sangeeta Bhatia, was interviewed recently by Jeremey Hobson on Boston NPR radio station WBUR's noon news program "Here and Now" about her work creating miniature livers for testing drugs. Listen to the podcast.

Rahul Sarpeshkar, professor in the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department and head of the Analog Circuits and Biological Systems Group in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) is featured by the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) at MIT for his work that blends both biological (wet) and electronic analog circuits (dry) in research that could lead to newly engineered immune cells that could detect cancer cells and kill them, for example. Read more.

Dennis Freeman, professor of electrical engineering, and a team of researchers in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics has reported findings in the Biophysical Journal that our selective ability to distinguish sounds depends on the size and distribution of pores just a few nanometers wide in the inner ear's tectorial membrane. The work may ultimately lead to biochemical manipulation or other means to aid in improving hearing. Read more.

Researchers at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL) including Anantha Chandrakasan, the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering, recent EECS PhD graduate Marcus Yip, EECS graduate student Rui Jin and research scientist Nathan Ickes, together with physicians from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), have developed a new, low-power signal-processing chip that could lead to a cochlear implant that requires no external hardware. The implant would be wirelessly recharged -- taking just two minutes -- and would run for about eight hours on each charge. Read more.

Timothy K. Lu, Assistant Professor leading the Synthetic Biology Group in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Department of Biological Engineering and principal investigator in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), has been selected for a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in support of work to understand biological cells as state machines leading to insights into natural biological systems and synthetic gene circuits. Read more.

Sangeeta Bhatia, professor in MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department and the Harvard MIT Health Sciences and Technology, has developed a noninvasive and quick test for the presence of blood clots using nanoparticles. This test could potentially be used in detecting other health threatening issues such as cancer. Read more.

Manolis Kellis, associate professor of computer science at MIT has teamed with a former CSAIL postdoc to combine work developing algorithms that predict how strands of RNA are likely to unfold with a team of computational biologists at MIT and with experimental biologists at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to identify biologically meaningful RNA folds within living cells. Published in Nature this week, this work shows promised for understanding RNA machinery -- a major avenue towards understanding genetic and biological function in living cells.

Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) Principal Research Scientist Luis Velasquez-Garcia, with members of his research group has developed a new way to perform x-rays that not only includes soft tissue, but is streamlined to portable dimension cutting the dose and overall expense typical for current x-ray machines. The Velasquez-Garcia group is presenting their work at the 13th International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS 2013), being held Dec. 3 to 6 in London.
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